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νύμφη

Pronunciation: /ným.pʰɛː/

“νύμφη” is an Ancient Greek word. Its 16 meanings in English:

noun

  1. bride, young wife
  2. young, nubile woman; marriageable maiden
  3. daughter-in-law
  4. young girl
  5. nymph, goddess of lower rank
  6. goddess of springs; (poetry) spring, spring water
  7. doll, puppet
  8. bee or wasp in pupa stage
  9. winged male ant
  10. A kind of mollusk.
  11. point of a plowshare
  12. hollow between the lower lip and the chin
  13. depression on the shoulder of a horse
  14. opening rosebud
  15. clitoris, also the labia minora
  16. niche

Etymology

Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”), and compared with Latin nūbō (“to marry”) (whence English nubile). However, Beekes argues for a Pre-Greek origin, as the preceding theory does not explain the origin of the inner nasal -μ- (-m-); others including Kretschmer have also argued for substrate origin, comparing the proper name Νυμφασία (Numphasía).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.